Illinois' 4th hospice opens in Barrington

Peter Cameron, Special to the Tribune

As Joyce Summers reached the end of her life, she was in physical agony.

After suffering a heart attack in May at age 86, she developed a case of colitis, an inflammation of the large intestine. When the pain became nearly unbearable, she called an ambulance. But she didn't direct it to the emergency room.

Summers went instead to the new Pepper Family Hospice Home and Center for Care in Barrington on a Monday in July, and died, peacefully, two days later, her daughter, Denise Stevens, said.

"She'd had enough of the hospital," said Stevens, who lives in McHenry, as her mother did.

Pepper hospice home "is a place where many people, if they're in their last dying days, would want to be," Stevens said.

The hospice, at 405 Lake Zurich Road, opened its doors in July, making it only the fourth freestanding hospice home in the state, said Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold. The three others are in Joliet and in Ogle and Madison counties.

Dr. Michael Marschke, Pepper's chief medical officer, said Illinois lags behind other states when it comes to hospice care.

"We're trying to catch up, and these homes are sorely needed," he said.

Wisconsin, by comparison, has 19 hospices and residential facilities dedicated to hospice care, said Stephanie Smiley, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Patients are referred to a hospice home "when the situation becomes so medically complex that it becomes a crisis," said Cindy Musikantow, president and CEO of Hospice and Palliative Care of Northeastern Illinois, the nonprofit agency that operates Pepper Family Hospice Home.

Usually that crisis involves an extraordinary amount of pain. At Pepper, caregivers provide 24-hour medical support to help manage pain, which can involve using IV drips to apply drugs like morphine but also nonmedical treatments like massage, yoga and tai chi. Social workers and chaplains are available to patientsas well.

"Once a person is comfortable, they can do things" they couldn't before receiving hospice care, Marschke said. "They can sleep a full night without waking up every hour in pain."

One recent patient was even able to get up and walk, something she hadn't done for days.

Some patients are eventually stabilized and released, but "the majority of the patients will die here," Marschke said. The usual length of stay is three to four days, and Medicare limits stays to five to seven days. Medicaid and most private insurance companies cover hospice care too, Marschke said. For the uninsured, Pepper provides financial counseling to see what a person can afford.

The home also offers a library, formal dining room, spa and suites that face a courtyard.

"It's a much smaller, more personal, nonmedical environment," Musikantow said.

Marschke described the setting as "homelike. … Today I went in to see the patient, and the wife was sleeping next to him in a double bed."

There are no visiting hours, and family can stay 24 hours a day. Even dogs are allowed.

As well as being animal friendly, Pepper is also touted as the first "green" hospice home in the state and among just a few in the country. During its planning and construction, Pepper followed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. The home was built partially from recycled materials and includes a retention pond to capture storm runoff; 75 percent of the building's spaces receive natural sunlight.

Operators have also recently opened a palliative care clinic inside the hospice home that provides support for people of any age coping with a serious or chronic illness.

For further details on Pepper's hospice or palliative care, go to hospiceanswers.org or call 847-381-5599 or 800-425-4444.